West Java is the province where he had the hardest time winning votes in the 2014 election.

In a survey commissioned by Jakarta-based pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), 25.7 percent of the 820 people polled said they would vote for Jokowi if the election were held now.

Prabowo came second in the poll, garnering 22 percent of votes. Meanwhile, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is no longer eligible to run for a presidential seat, ranked third with 1.3 percent of votes.

However, the number of undecided voters was high. The survey found 45.5 percent of respondents said they had not yet made a final decision, opening possibilities for a fierce competition among presidential candidates in the country’s most populous province.

The survey also revealed that Jokowi is leading in a head-to-head scenario, with Jokowi possibly defeating Prabowo by a thin margin of 48.8 percent to 43.5 percent.

“Jokowi’s chance to win in West Java in the next presidential election is getting bigger,” SMRC executive director Djayadi Hanan told journalists during the release of the study, which ran from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3.

Jokowi lost to Prabowo in West Java in the 2014 election, with 40.22 percent and 59.78 percent of votes respectively. (ebf)

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